On this page I will talk about some of my adventures with the Mandelbrot set. This page is UNDER CONSTRUCTION: there is plenty more to come here, including hopefully a working Java version, and a working ZX Spectrum version running in a Java emulator. If you want more information on the Mandelbrot set, do a Google search or whatever.

My First Mandelbrot Set!

I first came across the Mandelbrot set via an article in the July/August edition of Elektor Electronics, 1986. This was the third consecutive year that I had purchased this bumper summer issue of the magasine, containing over 100 projects. Two years earlier the summer issue had led, amongst other things, to my sidereal clock project. The Mandelbrot article wasn't really an electronics project but it captured my interest immediately, particularly as I was the proud new owner of my first computer, an Acorn Electron. Read more...

ZX81 Mandelbrot (including Java emulator)

Around the time of my Acorn Electron ownership, my Grandfather gave me his ZX81, having upgraded to a Sinclair ZX Spectrum. The ZX81 is a tiny home computer that came out in 1981 or thereabouts. It has a Z80 processor, a membrane keyboard, 1K of RAM and runs BASIC from its ROM. The screen is a text-only display, with 32 horizontal characters in 24 lines, the bottom two lines are used for error messages and so on. The character set also includes graphics characters... Read more...

The Spectrum Mandelbrot

In 1989 I was aged 18 and my Grandfather upgraded his ZX Spectrum again, giving me his old one. I wrote this Mandelbrot program in a mixture of BASIC and machine code (for the bits which needed to be fast). The basic Mandelbrot set in 256 x 176 resolution with maximum 15 iterations took only 7 minutes to draw, which for me at that time seemed lightening fast. Read more...

The University of Mandelbrot

Well I was not long turned 19 years old when I arrived at Imperial College, University of London to study a physics degree. In the first year, three afternoons per week were to be spent in the laboratory on practical experiments. One of the lab subjects was computing, and by good fortune I was in the lab group which did computing first. Read more...